Plains sends five to finals at state track meet

All five Plains track athletes fought their way through the cold and wet weather in Bozeman this weekend to make it into the finals at the State B track and field championship.

“It was wet, wet and wet,” said Plains coach Don Stamm. “It was as bad of weather as we had and we’ve had a lot of bad weather.” He said the rain-soaked field of Van Winkle Stadium impacted everybody and while none of the Plains athletes had outstanding marks, they were all able to place in the top 10 and advanced into the final round.

Sophomore Dillon Fryxell and senior Ashton Vulles placed the highest for Plains. Each left Bozeman with fourth-place trophies, but Stamm said both of them if asked, would say they were dissapointed in their performance. Stamm said when Fryxell was competing in the high jump, the rain was pouring down. “It was almost just a matter of survival,” Stamm said of the weather. Despite the pouring rain, Fryxell cleared the 6-foot high bar with no problem, but failed in his three attempts to get over the 6-foot, 2-inch high bar. Stamm said Fryxell was dissapointed because just a week at divisionals he had cleared 6 feet, 4 inches and had a valid attempt at 6 feet, 6 inches. Stamm said one thing that should ease Fryxell’s dissapointment is that he is only a sophomore. “He’s going to have two more shots at it,” Stamm said. He said expectations are high for Fryxell and he thinks he’ll be able to contend for the Plains’ record of 6 feet, 8 1/4 inches set by Bill Pilgeram.

Coming back for another year, is not a luxury that Vulles wil have. The senior, who was hampered with a bad back, had a throw of 117 feet, 2 inches in the javelin to place fourth, but Stamm said she wasn’t satisfied with her performance. Vulles’ throw was nearly 18 feet shorter than the school record she holds and 5 inches shorter than her throw at the state meet last year. Stamm said that before Vulles injured her back early in the season, she was throwing farther than anyone in Class B and was the clear favorite to win the championship. Stamm said when Vulles took the field Saturday she was nursing a bad back and once again, it was raining. “When you have a sore back and its raining, its a recipe for bad things to happen,” he said. Stamm said it has to be a little painful for Vulles knowing that if she was healthy she would probably be the state champion right now. “But such is life, such is sports,” he said.

Sophomore Trent Thompson had a fifth place in the discus and placed sixth in the shot put. Thompson had a throw of 144 feet, 7 inches in the discus and threw the shot put 47 feet, 1 1/4 inches. Even with the bad weather this weekend, Thompson improved in both the discus and shot put from last week’s sun-drenched divisional. Thompson increased his distance in the discus by nearly 3 and 1/2 feet and threw the shot put an extra 8 inches. Stamm said Thompson’s performance at state is just a precursor for things to come. “He’s should be a force,” Stamm said.

Ethan Harvey, a junior, followed right behind Thompson in the discus. Harvey placed sixth with a throw 143 feet, 8 inches. “He’s real happy with that,” Stamm said. Trotter junior Emma Ehret, just missed out in placing in the shot put. Ehret threw the shot put over 32 feet to place in seventh. “I don’t think we expected that,” Stamm said. He said with six of the seven athletes Plains took to the State B championship returning next year, things are looking encouraging for the Plains’ track and field team. Abbie Starkey qualified for the meet in the 300-meter hurdles, but was sick and didn’t travel with the team.